BENGALURU/ CHITRADURGA : With the Veerashaiva Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities having expressed their opposition to the Congress government accepting the State Backward Classes Commission’s caste census report, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is set to give a reply by organising an AHINDA (acronym for minority, backward classes and Dalits) rally on January 28 in Chitradurga.
The ‘Shoshitara Jagruthi Samavesha’ rally gained significance in the wake of the Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva-Lingayat Mahasabha convention held recently at Davanagere, where a resolution was passed to reject the caste-based socio-economic education survey report. Apart from demanding that the H Kantharaj Commission’s caste-based socio-economic-educational survey report be accepted, the AHINDA rally will also pass a resolution to demand that the Centre conduct a similar survey at the national level. It will also seek the withdrawal of the 10 per cent quota given to Economically Weaker Sections.
Demanding implementation of women’s reservation from the coming general elections, along with internal reservation for OBCs and providing minorities reservation in the Lok Sabha and assemblies on the lines of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will also be part of the resolution, informed BT Jagadish, a leader.
It may recalled that Siddaramaiah had promised the AHINDA communities that the report would be accepted, but did not do so due to pressure from Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The government has even extended the term of Backward Classes Commission Chairman K Jayaprakash Hegde, which ended on November 25, 2023, to January 31, 2024, and it remains to be seen whether the government accepts the report before the Lok Sabha polls and uses it as a poll plank.
But the rally ahead of the 2024 LS polls is likely to help the ruling Congress in some seats in central and north Karnataka, including Chitradurga, Haveri and Koppal, where AHINDA communities, including Kurubas, constitute a sizable electoral population.
Aspirants for the Congress ticket from Chitradurga include former minister H Anjaneya and former MP BN Chandrappa, who have helped the organisation, according to sources. Incumbent BJP MP and Union minister for Social Justice Anekal Narayanaswamy, who appears to be facing anti-incumbency, recently stated that he may not contest the 2024 LS polls.
“It is a continuation of AHINDA in which all the communities’ leaders and people will take part. We will back Siddaramaiah to the hilt on the socio-economic survey by the Kantharaj Commission,” informed K M Ramachandrappa, who claimed to have embarked on a state tour to organise the communities for the rally. Over 10 lakh people representing every taluk, will take part, he added.
Former Bengaluru mayor M Ramchandrappa claimed the rally would help the Congress in the 2024 polls. “There was opposition to former CM D Devaraj Urs accepting the Havanur report and now Siddaramaiah is under pressure not to accept the caste census report. But the rally will give him a shot in the arm,” he said.